Data Analytics Case Study for Holden Company

This data analytics case study discusses the Holden Company, a vehicle manufacturer and dealer in Australia. It covers their current mode of operations, possible inefficiencies, available data, and how data-driven decision making can help them improve their operational efficiencies and marketing campaigns. The report concludes by highlighting the main points drawing the arguments together into a cohesive finish.

Running Head: DATA ANALYTICS CASE STUDY
Data Analytics Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Company.......................................................................................................3
Current Mode of Operations....................................................................................................3
Possible Inefficiencies.............................................................................................................4
Available data..........................................................................................................................4
Customer oriented operations..................................................................................................5
CRS values...............................................................................................................................5
Operational strengths...............................................................................................................5
Workforce strength..................................................................................................................6
The priorities of the company..................................................................................................6
The opportunities evaluated.....................................................................................................6
The drawbacks.........................................................................................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The data analysis is the process through which the data is analyzed in order to draw
proper conclusion. The conclusion is drawn by the information contained with the solution of
specialized systems and software. The data analytics technologies are broadly used especially in
the commercial industries which enables the organizations to make more concerned and
appropriate decisions (Abbott et al. 2017). The data analytics can help the business organizations
to increase the revenues wit improved operational efficiencies. It also optimizes the marketing
campaigns along with suitable customer service efforts. The organizations are supported to
respond quickly to the market trends and experience competitive edge over the rivals.
The data driven decision making is important for the business organizations to identify
the opportunities and predict the future trends in the market easily. It is a key technique to
generate higher revenues with the collected data. Researchers have found that data driven
decision making can help organizations to generate minimum 4%- 6 % of higher productivity
(Benson and Magee 2018). The present report will deal with Holden company which is a vehicle
manufacturer and dealer in Australia. The aim of the report is to articulate the steps needed to
enable data driven decision making. It will further describe the current mode of operation,
possible inefficiencies, available data and how this data may be used to provide efficiencies
based on the concepts and techniques covered in the subject. The report will conclude by
highlighting the main points drawing the arguments together into a cohesive finish.

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Discussion
Overview of the Company
The Holden company which was formerly known as General Motors –Holden is a
famous Australian automobile importer and manufacturer. The company was founded in the year
1856 by James Alexander Holden and Sir Edward Holden. The headquarter of the company is
situated in Port Melbourne, Australia. Dave Buttner is the chairman and managing director of the
company and the company primarily deals in the automotive engines (Holden.com 2019). The
General Motors is the parent company of Holden and as per the reports of 2018, there are 180
employees working in the organization.
Current Mode of Operations
The Holden company operates through selling the remaining stock of the commodore
vehicles which are locally produced and imported to the General Motors. The care brands like
Isuzu, Chevrolet, Opel, Suzuki, Vauxhall Motors, Toyota have been offered the badge
engineered models by the Holden Company. The company has distributing relationships with the
European Opel brand and the American Cadillac brand (Hora, Bouwma-Gearhart and Park,
2017). At present the Holden company employs 3150 people approximately across the nation.
The HVO or the Holden Vehicle Operations produces almost 45 car models from almost six
vehicle body styles along with two of the core vehicle’s architecture for export and domestic
customers (Ferreira et al 2015). The company produces for the Australian market, the
commodore sedans, ute and sportswagon with long wheel base luxury vehicles. In the year 2011,
the production of Cruze began by the Adelaide plant of Holden company. In the year 2013, the
production of VF commodore began in the Holden company. The incorporation of the

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lightweight technology has led the company towards soaring success. It handles the design and
engineering of General Motors globally (Marsh and Farrell 2015).
Possible Inefficiencies
The Holden company deals in the automotive industry. The Australian automotive
industry is going through the period of transformation and mass disruption. It can be suspected
that car manufactures like Ford, Mitsubishi and Toyota will increase the assembly lines overseas
where the cost of production is lower (Marsh and Farrell 2015). There are certain reasons behind
the closure of the car manufacturing industry of Australia. It is a small market and the economies
of scale cannot be fully exploited by the manufacturers. It is likely that the companies will use
the comparatively cheaper foreign productions. In such a scenario, a company might face
difficulty in managing the R & D and the technological innovation.
There are possibilities that the Holden company will move their R & D activities closer to
the manufacturing centers having shut down their Australian plants. The car component industry
is likely to not survive and the capabilities in the engineering department will be affected
adversely. This critical situation can lead the company to be held back due to the rapid
globalization. The increasing globalization equals increased risks and complexities. It might be
requiring new growth and efficiency strategies. Since the customers are shifting away from the
ownership of vehicles and preferring the public transportation services, the Holden company
might need innovation to meet the customer needs.
Available data
The Resource and competencies

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The core competencies of a firm determine the way the firm can do better in future. The
Holden company cars are faster delivery, high quality, long lasting and innovative. The primary
competitor of Holden company are Toyota and Ford. The company also has a well build huan
resource department and the marketing strategies along with soaring advertisement can help the
company to overcome the hurdles and pose as a successful automotive firm.
Customer oriented operations
The business of the Holden motors is driven by the customers oriented activities, the
creative approaches and the resourcefulness. The entrepreneurial spirit is also there in the
executives of the company. It is an inspired and diverse team which respects and values the
contribution of people who are involved in it. They consider the health and safety of the workers
to be of paramount importance.
CRS values
The company is committed to the betterment of the society and the environment. They
never compromise their integrity and put their full effort to leave a positive contribution to the
society. The people of the company are in constant strive to improve the way they work. They
try to provide superior returns to their important stakeholders being guided by their vision,
mission and vales to become a worldwide leader in the automotive industry. The mission of the
company is to improve continually the products and services they provide to the customers.
Operational strengths
The company has acquired a considerable range of suppliers both locally and
internationally. The important parts of the vehicle are supplied to them from the best
manufacturers. They operate with the innovations in the technology and procedures such as the

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single supplier model, the risk management framework, the virtual assembly line and many
others. The company is highly committed to the environmental protection by growing low
emission technologies and leaving lesser carbon footprints. The Holden company also employs
the repeatability of the technologies used. Taken for example, the same spares are usable in
multiple models which is termed as the virtual assembly lines.
Workforce strength
The company also possesses an excellent production and engineering workforce having
global competencies. It accentuates the company’s capabilities in the product localization in
various countries (Rejikumar, Aswathy Asokan and Sreedharan 2018). The employees are well
trained and have excellent knowledge of analytics which can be applied in the global market too.
It is helping the company to transform into a truly global company.
The priorities of the company
The Holden company is aimed at global power train and flexible engine parts. They try to
keep the manufacturing equipment and the plan floor layouts similar across the globe
(Vladimirova et al.2017). It also concentrates on helping the speed products to the market and
easing the launch status. The crew shipping between the components of the plants is also focused
at by the company.
The opportunities evaluated
It has been observed after analyzing the resource and competencies of the Holden motors
that there are so many opportunities left for the company (Zendzian, Carter and Jones 2017). The
company can easily grow small motor markets in the third world countries both in small
segments and medium segments. The company can experience the development of green cars

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which are more fuel efficient and promote them in the broader markets of US and Europe. The
contemporary hybrid cars and the electric cars can also be developed.
The drawbacks
The company is not that successful as compared to the Japanese competitor like Toyota.
The company is unable to tap the opportunities in small as well as medium segments where there
is the largest motor market (Zhou and Yang 2016). The company lacks the ability to establish
sustainable markets in high –tech car models such as Jaguar and Land Rover.
Recommendation
The business data always been used to increase the internal efficiencies. The marketing
goliaths are using the existing data to improve their brand recognition based on the customer
relations and expectations. There are endless instances where the companies have used the big
data in order to improve the productivity.
 The existing customer data can be used to get a clear and comprehensive view of the
target audience. This data can be helpful in determining how to deal with them and how
to win over their interests. The customer intelligence is supportive of improving the
customer experiences. Since the Holden company operates mostly in the customer
oriented way, the available data on the customer segments can be utilized for future
addressing.
 The customer calls can be used to improve the quality of the products and services. An
analysis of the recorded customer calls can point out the areas of improvement. The calls
can be routed to the experienced personnel who can provide better solutions.

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 Using the available big data, the Holden company can understand the specifications in the
recruitment process. The HR department of the Holden company can help retain their
workforce standards by conducting proper recruitment and training programs. It will help
the company to refrain from losing talents.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be said that data analytics can help the
business organizations to increase the revenues wit improved operational efficiencies. It also
optimizes the marketing campaigns along with suitable customer service efforts. The
organizations are supported to respond quickly to the market trends and experience competitive
edge over the rivals. The data driven decision making is important for the business organizations
to identify the opportunities and predict the future trends in the market easily. It is a key
technique to generate higher revenues with the collected data. The present report has dealt with
Holden company which is a vehicle manufacturer and dealer in Australia. The report has
articulated the steps needed to enable data driven decision making. It has further described the
current mode of operation, possible inefficiencies, available data and how this data may be used
to provide efficiencies based on the concepts and techniques covered in the subject.

9DATA ANALYTICS CASE STUDY
References
Abbott, M., Beecher, C., Petersen, S., Greenwood, C.R. and Atwater, J., 2017. A Team
Approach to Data-Driven Decision-Making Literacy Instruction in Preschool Classrooms: Child
Assessment and Intervention Through Classroom Team Self-Reflection. Young exceptional
children, 20(3), pp.117-132.
Benson, C.L. and Magee, C.L., 2018. Data-Driven Investment Decision-Making: Applying
Moore's Law and S-Curves to Business Strategies. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.06339.
Ferreira, N., Lage, M., Doraiswamy, H., Vo, H., Wilson, L., Werner, H., Park, M. and Silva, C.,
2015, October. Urbane: A 3d framework to support data driven decision making in urban
development. In Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), 2015 IEEE Conference
on (pp. 97-104). IEEE.
Holden.com 2019. Holden Australia | New Cars, Offers, Dealers & Services. [online]
Holden.com.au. Available at: https://www.holden.com.au/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2019].
Hora, M.T., Bouwma-Gearhart, J. and Park, H.J., 2017. Data driven decision-making in the era
of accountability: Fostering faculty data cultures for learning. The Review of Higher
Education, 40(3), pp.391-426.
Marsh, J.A. and Farrell, C.C., 2015. How leaders can support teachers with data-driven decision
making: A framework for understanding capacity building. Educational Management
Administration & Leadership, 43(2), pp.269-289.

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Rejikumar, G., Aswathy Asokan, A. and Sreedharan, V.R., 2018. Impact of data-driven decision-
making in Lean Six Sigma: an empirical analysis. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, pp.1-18.
Vladimirova, D., Geissdoerfer, M., Yang, M., Zaki, M., Turner, C. and Tiwari, A., 2017. A
Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Re-Distributed Manufacturing Business Models Based
on Data-Driven Decision Making. In British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference.
Zendzian, A., Carter, R. and Jones, M., 2017. Data Driven Decision Making and Physical
Therapy Management of Patient with a Basal Ganglia Hemorrhage.
Zhou, K., Fu, C. and Yang, S., 2016. Big data driven smart energy management: From big data
to big insights. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 56, pp.215-225.